A New Pitch For Baseball

August 30, 1987|By Edie Gibson.

Throughout her life Darlene Mehrer dreamed of being a professional baseball player. She had struck out, so she decided to do the next best thing: write about baseball and try to organize a woman`s team.

Encouraged by her husband, Bill, the 43-year-old Glenview resident quit her job as an assistant editor for a technical publisher and started BaseWoman, a monthly newsletter that premiered in June. It is the first and only national publication devoted exclusively to covering any topic related to women and baseball.

To date about two dozen women have answered Mehrer`s call in the newsletter for women interested in forming Chicago-area teams. She expects the teams to see action this fall against one another.

Yet Mehrer`s primary goal is to fill a niche in the marketplace, she says. ``No one covered women`s baseball-not the newspapers, sports magazines, women`s magazines, television or radio. I decided to try and fill that void.`` The August issue includes a story on the latest woman to broadcast a baseball game, along with a historical perspective on women broadcasters; an interview with Barbara Gregorich, author of ``She`s on First,`` a fictional account of the first woman to play in the major leagues; along with a review of the book and several news items on discrimination against women players and major league baseball`s affirmative-action plan.

Currently girls are permitted to play on boys` Little League teams, but there are no girls` baseball teams in Chicago-area high schools. About 10 colleges nationwide offer women`s baseball programs. On the professional level, although women are employed in front-office positions, only one woman has taken the field: Pam Postema, an umpire working in the American Association`s Triple AAA league, one step from the majors.

``Through BaseWoman I`d like to further the advancement of women in baseball and get more women playing the game as well as employed in professional baseball,`` Mehrer says. ``I also want women to be treated better even if they`re spectators. For example, there are a lot of women who watch baseball on TV. Almost all the advertising during the game is geared for men. Advertisers don`t seem to be aware of this.``

Mehrer says she became a fan at age 4, when her father introduced her to the sport. ``My earliest memories are of me and my father listening to the Cubs and Sox games on the radio and watching it on television. I`d go out in the back yard and pretend I was playing baseball. I think I was hooked by the beauty of the game. When a great play is made, everything pauses. You savor that moment.``

As she got older the game continued to be magical for her. ``What appealed to me was the idea that almost anyone could play. You didn`t have to be a great big hunk like in football or particularly tall like in basketball. The position of catcher enthralled me. That`s where the action is. The catcher is in on everything. It`s also an ego trip. The catcher is always on camera,`` Mehrer says.

Growing up in the `50s, however, there were no baseball teams for girls. High school afforded only softball. ``That`s how it was and still is. But I never gave up,`` says Mehrer, the mother of three, a daughter, Desta, 21, and sons, Vince, 23, and Kirk, 17.

In January Mehrer`s ultimate fantasy of being a catcher came true. She was the only woman among 57 men to attend former Cubs` catcher Randy Hundley`s Baseball Camp in Mesa, Ariz. ``That was the first time I used a mitt,`` she says.

``Women need to see role models in all aspects of the game. To get women in baseball you`ll have to have a grassroots movement. Women want to play, but they don`t see others doing it. If we start playing on our own, eventually park districts and schools may offer it. But we have a long way to go. BaseWoman`s value is keeping the idea alive and on people`s minds on a regular basis. I won`t let them forget.``